The 29-year-old Healy will carry a career-best five-fight winning
streak into the cage. The
Team Quest representative last competed at Strikeforce
“Rockhold vs. Kennedy” in July, when he took a unanimous decision
from Mizuto
Hirota at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore. Victories over
former
World Extreme Cagefighting welterweight champion Carlos
Condit, British knockout artist Paul Daley,
onetime
Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight title contender
Dan
Hardy and
AMC Pankration export Caros Fodor
anchor Healy’s extensive resume. Known for his grinding style,
tireless work rate and stifling top game, he has secured more than
half (15) of his 28 professional wins by submission. Healy owns a
6-1 mark inside Strikeforce, a June 2010 submission defeat to
Josh
Thomson the lone setback.

A far cry from Melendez or Masvidal, Holobaugh sports eight
finishes among his nine career victories, having delivered five of
them inside one round. The 26-year-old last appeared under the
Fight Force International banner in October, when he knocked out
Wesley
Dunlap, who was 0-2 at the time, in a little less than 90
seconds at the Biloxi Civic Center in Biloxi, Miss. Holobaugh
scored his most significant win in April, when he submitted
EliteXC
veteran and Rich
Clementi protégé J.C.
Pennington with a third-round triangle choke.

Healy’s demotion from headliner to undercard afterthought is but
one reason to tap into the Strikeforce “Marquardt vs. Saffiedine”
prelims, which air at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime Extreme. Here are
four more:

Good Gracie

Ten-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champions tend to draw attention
to themselves, whether they are playing checkers or climbing into a
cage for a full-contact prizefight.

Outside of an ill-fated knockout loss to Muhammed
Lawal in 2011, Roger
Gracie’s transition to mixed martial arts has gone according to
plan. A two-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World
Championships gold medalist, the 31-year-old London-based Brazilian
has submitted three opponents inside the first round. Gracie
righted himself in his middleweight debut, scoring a unanimous
verdict over battle-hardened UFC veteran Keith
Jardine in July.

A surging Anthony
Smith awaits him on the undercard. The well-traveled
24-year-old has recorded nine wins in his past 10 outings. Smith
returned to the Strikeforce cage in August and made the most of the
opportunity, as he submitted Lumumba
Sayers with a first-round triangle choke. A potent finisher, he
has secured 16 of his 17 professional victories by knockout,
technical knockout or submission.

Ultimate Warrior

Tim
Kennedy twice fought for the Strikeforce middleweight crown,
but he will close out his tenure with the company far away from the
spotlight’s glare.

Kennedy will answer the bell against submission ace Trevor
Smith, as he looks to avoid back-to-back defeats for the first
time in his career. The 33-year-old combat veteran came up short in
his bid to unseat middleweight titleholder Luke
Rockhold in July, dropping a unanimous verdict to the
American Kickboxing Academy standout. Wins over Jason “Mayhem”
Miller, Dutch knockout artist Melvin
Manhoef and former EliteXC middleweight kingpin Robbie
Lawler buoy Kennedy’s excellent resume. Notoriously durable, he
has been finished only once -- it was on a cut -- in his
career.

Smith generally follows one path to victory. The 32-year-old Ring
Demon Jiu-Jitsu representative has posted 10 wins as a
professional, nine of them via submission. Smith rarely waists
time, as 11 of his 12 bouts have come to a close inside one
round.

Capable Hands

An accomplished boxer blessed with skilled and precise hands, Noons
captured the EliteXC lightweight championship in November 2007 and
held it until the company closed for business a year later. Still,
he has remained inconsistent in MMA, with wins over Nick Diaz,
American Top Team’s Yves Edwards
and Andre
Amado offset by defeats to Charles
Bennett and Buddy
Clinton. Now 30, Noons will enter the cage for his final
Strikeforce bout staring at an uncertain future, with losses in
three of his past four fights.

Noons draws a difficult assignment in Ryan
Couture, the cagy and resourceful son of UFC hall of famer
Randy
Couture. The 30-year-old will enter the matchup on a
three-fight winning streak.

Grounded Gurgel

Everyone knows the book on Jorge
Gurgel: accomplished grappler who has largely abandoned the
ground game despite the fact that he has never knocked out anyone
in mixed martial arts competition. He lets his fists fly, strategy
be damned.

On the backside of his career, the 35-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu
black belt owns a 1-3 mark in his past four appearances, though his
struggles can be traced back to his time in the UFC, where losses
to Cole
Miller and Aaron Riley
resulted in his 2008 release. A longtime training partner of
onetime UFC middleweight champion Rich
Franklin, Gurgel will look to restore some order to his career
when he confronts Dream veteran Adriano
Martins.

A Jungle
Fight mainstay in his native Brazil, Martins has won 10 times
in 11 outings. The 30-year-old has put away his last three foes in
the first round and needed only 62 seconds to dispatch Jimmy
Donahue with punches at Jungle Fight 37 in March. In 29 career
appearances, Martins has been knocked out only once. He has never
been submitted.